Prior to the beginning of the Metropolis City Council meeting Monday, newly elected officials were sworn in by Massac County Clerk John Taylor.

Kim Brown, Bill Carrell, David McManus, Jerry Mizell, Kristy Stephenson, Jan Adams and Billy McDaniel took the oaths of office for aldermen of Wards 1 through 4, city treasurer, city clerk and mayor respectively,

When the meeting convened in council chambers, McDaniel addressed the council he’s worked with for the last two years and will be working with for the next two.

“I would like to start out in thanking each and every one that sits at this council chambers. I congratulate you on your re-election. We have a lot to do in the next two years and probably the next four years,” he began. “I do appreciate each and every one of you for what you bring to the city. Every once and a while, we’ll have a few challenging events and things like that and that’s OK because I can actually say, in my opinion, we have as good a council as the City of Metropolis has had in many, many years. We’ve learned to grow in our own territory. Each and every one has something different to bring to the table. I do believe each one that sits in these chairs here has the best interest of the City of Metropolis at heart. I wanted to personally thank each and every one of you for what you do. That doesn’t mean to say that tomorrow we might have a disagreement over one thing or the other, but what I think means the most to me is as we move through the trials and differences of opinion, that’s what we’re all elected for is to come up with the very best scenario that we can do for all the people involved.

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